‘Dying to Survive’ a rare Chinese film

16/07/2018

China’s ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ a hit

SHANGHAI, July 15, (AFP): The screen portrayal of a cancer sufferer whose illegal import of foreign medicines into China spurred national policy changes has become a box-office smash as audiences flock to a rare Chinese film on a hot-button issue.

“Dying to Survive” is based on Lu Yong, who was arrested in 2013 after illegally importing a generic cancer drug in a case that sparked public debate about high medical costs.

It is being compared to “Dallas Buyers Club”, the critically acclaimed 2013 US film about smuggled HIV treatments, and praised as a breath of fresh air in China’s heavily censored cinema landscape.

The public debate eventually saw Lu’s case dismissed and his experience is credited with prompting government steps to make cancer medicines more accessible and affordable.

Starring popular comic actor and director Xu Zheng as a character modelled after Lu, the movie uses touches of black comedy to leaven the heavy subject matter and is on course to become one of China’s highest-grossing films.

Released July 5, it surpassed even the first-week box office take of “Wolf Warrior 2”, a commando adventure that last year capitalised on rising patriotism to become China’s highest-grossing movie ever and the first non-Hollywood title in the 100 all-time top-earners worldwide.

Lu, now 50, was told in 2002 he had three years left after being diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML).

Doctors said Glivec, manufactured by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, could stabilise his condition until he was able to get a potentially life-saving bone-marrow transplant.

But Glivec — Novartis’ brand name for the drug Imatinib — cost a prohibitive 24,000 yuan ($3,600) per bottle in China then.

Increasing

An Indian generic version cost only 2,000 yuan, however, so Lu began ordering it from abroad, increasing the volume over the years as other patients sought his help.

The Indian drug was barred under Chinese rules and Lu was eventually arrested.

But in a rare case of Communist authorities bending to popular opinion, prosecutors in central Hunan province dropped Lu’s case after thousands of Chinese leukaemia patients signed an open letter urging his release.

Lu, who says he never sought to profit from the scheme, was never charged.

Since then, the government has relaxed policies on cancer drug imports and allowed reimbursement for Glivec prescriptions under national health insurance.

“I know the pressure of being tortured by disease, so I never thought to make one cent,” Lu said in comments on his personal blog.

“Since the movie’s release, it’s become a sensation. To be able to push healthcare reform is an excellent thing.”

Lu, still awaiting his bone-marrow transplant, is now a businessman who owns a handglove factory in eastern China.

As of Friday, the film had earned 2.04 billion yuan ($300 million). “Wolf Warrior 2” earned a total 5.67 billion yuan in a 12-week cinema run.

But the key villain in “Dying to Survive” is the pharmaceutical industry, and the Communist Party apparently saw the propaganda value of a movie that portrays the government as responsive on the issue.

The government announced earlier this year that it would lift tariffs on many cancer treatments, and the buzz around the film’s release has coincided with yet more change.

In late June, it was announced that dozens of previously-barred imported drugs had been added to national medical insurance.

After the release of “Dying to Survive” rekindled the discussion, China’s drug administration said it also would remove hurdles to foreign generic drugs “to better satisfy the medication need of China’s patients”.

The movie hit a 9.1 average rating on popular Chinese film-review website Douban.com shortly after its release, one of the site’s highest-ever marks.

Bai Feng, the original prosecutor in Lu’s case, told a government-run news portal after the film came out that Lu’s case helped change government thinking.

“It promoted a transition in our concept of justice and the perception of how we enforce the law,” Bai said.

Also:

NEW YORK: It was the soapy period drama about the upstairs-downstairs lives and loves at an English country estate that enjoyed astonishing success on both sides of the Atlantic — and now it’s back. “Downton Abbey” the movie is in the works.

“We’re thrilled to announce that ‘Downton Abbey’ is coming to the big screen,” the television series tweeted Friday. Film production begins this summer.

The six-season television series ran on Britain’s ITV from 2010 to 2015, and in the United States on PBS’ Masterpiece.

In the United States, it won three Golden Globes, 15 primetime Emmy Awards and commanded a rave following, becoming the most nominated non-US television show in the history of the Emmys.

It followed the lives of the Crawley family, headed by the Earl of Grantham, and their servants as they navigate changing times from the Edwardian heyday of the British aristocracy, to World War I and the roaring 1920s.

The original principal cast, including Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery and Hugh Bonneville, are set to reprise their roles in the big-screen production, Hollywood entertainment news website Deadline reported.

Creator Julian Fellowes has written the screenplay and will co-produce, it added. Highclere Castle in England is expected to return as the family seat.

“Downton Abbey” became one of Britain’s biggest ever drama exports with an international audience of around 120 million.

The television series ended in 1926 with daughter Edith Crawley marrying and outranking the rest of the family, sister Mary expecting a second child, and butler and lady’s maid Bates and Anna welcoming their first.

New York-based company Focus Features has set production for the cinema release with British-based Carnival Films.

“It was our dream to bring the millions of global fans a movie and now, after getting many stars aligned, we are shortly to go into production,” said Gareth Neame, Carnival’s executive chairman.

“We’re thrilled to join this incredible group of filmmakers, actors and craftspeople, led by Julian Fellowes and Gareth Neame, in bringing back the world of Downton to the big screen,” said Focus chairman Peter Kujawski.

No plot twists have yet been revealed and no release date yet announced.